Santa Claus, take note: Bob Keefe wants a surfboard for Christmas. In case Saint Nicholas isn't listening, Keefe has released a new album, Surfin' with Santa, that should get the bearded one's attention at the North Pole. On Surfin' with Santa, Keefe covers traditional Christmas tunes like “Jingle Bells" and “Silent Night" and gives them the surf-music treatment. It's an unlikely marriage that Keefe manages to pull off effectively, capturing the sense of wonder and spiritual beauty of the originals while propelling them with layers of reverb-laden guitars. Keefe took time from his busy schedule to discuss this unique and irresistibly entertaining project.
Q: What was it like living in Southern California in the early '60s? Was it as romantic as the Beach Boys wrote in their songs?
A: Although I was born in Los Angeles, from age seven onward I lived in Fresno, California. Though landlocked as it appears on a map, there was nevertheless a big surf music scene in Fresno. Within a three year time span, the Beach Boys played there a total of three times. I was fortunate enough to have heard the group twice: with Brian Wilson playing bass the first time they rolled through; the next time I heard them, 1965, Brian had been replaced by Bruce Johnston. California is as romantic as you want it to be. For my ocean fix, Santa Cruz and the California's central coast were just a few hours away. L.A. and Malibu were a bit further, around four hours. The saving grace for me in the Central Valley was radio: there were two huge radio stations in Fresno, KYNO and KMAK, that played all sorts of surf tunes by the Surfaris, the Tornados, the Pyramids, the Chantays, and Dick Dale...surf music was literally in the air (waves).
Q: What inspired you to start playing guitar?
A: I had taken piano lessons early on, but the instrument didn't speak to me. I later tried trumpet and then clarinet. My best friend from elementary school had just moved back to Fresno from Hawaii, and he had started playing the guitar over there. One day, I picked up his guitar and I knew that the guitar was the instrument for me. He later moved back to Hawaii and the entire summer between my junior and senior year in high school were spent in Oahu. I brought my guitar over with me so I had the best of both worlds: music and the ocean!
Q: How did you learn to play guitar?
A: At first I tried to learn tunes by myself, but my mom convinced me that lessons were the best way to learn something. I might have studied privately for a year or two at most, but then I got the attitude that I could learn better by myself. And from that point on (probably age 15) I was playing and practicing on a regular basis. I had my first professional gig that New Year's Eve at the local Masonic Temple with my surf band. When I entered college I took music really seriously, learned to read, played in the jazz ensemble at Fresno State as well as a few local bands (not surf bands). My guitar study at North Texas State University is where things really made sense and took off.
Q: What attracted you to surf music?
A: My attraction to surf music was that the guitar was the dominating force driving the band. With the exception of “Surfer Joe," the words “Wipe Out" in the tune of the same name, and “Let's Go Trippin'" (vocal introduction), surf music is all instrumental. What that meant to me was that I didn't have to sing in front of anyone when I performed. I could just play! The melodies were easy to learn, and any semi-accomplished guitarist could learn the lead to “Pipeline" in an afternoon. Unlike today's guitar instrumentalists (Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, etc.), I defy anyone to learn a solo note-for-note in an afternoon. When you learned a melody to a surf tune, you knew you accomplished something.
Q: How did you come up with the idea of creating an album of Christmas covers done surf style?
A: The seeds of it were planted about six years ago when I visited my friend Jay Van Horn in Fresno one Christmas vacation. At the time, Jay was in a fantastic surf band called the Surf Neptunes. I was showing him some of my jazz guitar Christmas arrangements and all of a sudden we got the idea of putting these arrangements in a surf style. I plugged in one of Jay's Stratocasters into his home studio and just started laying down tracks. Nothing ever happened with the masters. It wasn't until I upgraded my Mac computer this September that I was able to replicate what I did at Jay's. Additionally, the Christmas songs I chose for it are the same ones that I teach my students every year, though the arrangements they learn are more traditional. Another reason I chose the songs I did was that all of the tunes are in the public domain, which meant that I didn't have to spend a lot of time chasing down copyright owners.
Q: What was it like living in Southern California in the early '60s? Was it as romantic as the Beach Boys wrote in their songs?
A: Although I was born in Los Angeles, from age seven onward I lived in Fresno, California. Though landlocked as it appears on a map, there was nevertheless a big surf music scene in Fresno. Within a three year time span, the Beach Boys played there a total of three times. I was fortunate enough to have heard the group twice: with Brian Wilson playing bass the first time they rolled through; the next time I heard them, 1965, Brian had been replaced by Bruce Johnston. California is as romantic as you want it to be. For my ocean fix, Santa Cruz and the California's central coast were just a few hours away. L.A. and Malibu were a bit further, around four hours. The saving grace for me in the Central Valley was radio: there were two huge radio stations in Fresno, KYNO and KMAK, that played all sorts of surf tunes by the Surfaris, the Tornados, the Pyramids, the Chantays, and Dick Dale...surf music was literally in the air (waves).
Q: What inspired you to start playing guitar?
A: I had taken piano lessons early on, but the instrument didn't speak to me. I later tried trumpet and then clarinet. My best friend from elementary school had just moved back to Fresno from Hawaii, and he had started playing the guitar over there. One day, I picked up his guitar and I knew that the guitar was the instrument for me. He later moved back to Hawaii and the entire summer between my junior and senior year in high school were spent in Oahu. I brought my guitar over with me so I had the best of both worlds: music and the ocean!
Q: How did you learn to play guitar?
A: At first I tried to learn tunes by myself, but my mom convinced me that lessons were the best way to learn something. I might have studied privately for a year or two at most, but then I got the attitude that I could learn better by myself. And from that point on (probably age 15) I was playing and practicing on a regular basis. I had my first professional gig that New Year's Eve at the local Masonic Temple with my surf band. When I entered college I took music really seriously, learned to read, played in the jazz ensemble at Fresno State as well as a few local bands (not surf bands). My guitar study at North Texas State University is where things really made sense and took off.
Q: What attracted you to surf music?
A: My attraction to surf music was that the guitar was the dominating force driving the band. With the exception of “Surfer Joe," the words “Wipe Out" in the tune of the same name, and “Let's Go Trippin'" (vocal introduction), surf music is all instrumental. What that meant to me was that I didn't have to sing in front of anyone when I performed. I could just play! The melodies were easy to learn, and any semi-accomplished guitarist could learn the lead to “Pipeline" in an afternoon. Unlike today's guitar instrumentalists (Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, etc.), I defy anyone to learn a solo note-for-note in an afternoon. When you learned a melody to a surf tune, you knew you accomplished something.
Q: How did you come up with the idea of creating an album of Christmas covers done surf style?
A: The seeds of it were planted about six years ago when I visited my friend Jay Van Horn in Fresno one Christmas vacation. At the time, Jay was in a fantastic surf band called the Surf Neptunes. I was showing him some of my jazz guitar Christmas arrangements and all of a sudden we got the idea of putting these arrangements in a surf style. I plugged in one of Jay's Stratocasters into his home studio and just started laying down tracks. Nothing ever happened with the masters. It wasn't until I upgraded my Mac computer this September that I was able to replicate what I did at Jay's. Additionally, the Christmas songs I chose for it are the same ones that I teach my students every year, though the arrangements they learn are more traditional. Another reason I chose the songs I did was that all of the tunes are in the public domain, which meant that I didn't have to spend a lot of time chasing down copyright owners.
